Happy Hunting

You're hiking in the woods some weekend and spot a skunk, a deer and a family of raccoons. Nice. You're hiking in the woods some weekend and spot a Florida panther. Incredible!

If it really was a panther you saw, the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission wants to know about it. Even if you only think you saw a panther, or saw tracks or droppings that could have been a panther's.

The big cat, which once roamed abundantly throughout the eastern United States, has dwindled to only about 50 of the Florida subspecies. Back in the 1880s, panther scalps brought a $5 bounty. Sport-hunting the animals was finally outlawed in 1958, when state's panther population -- the last surviving east of the Mississippi -- was estimated at no more than 50. In 1967, the Florida panther was placed on the endangered-species list.

Since 1982, the Florida Panther Recovery team has tracked and fitted cats with radio-telemetry-transmitting collars. They hope that by learning more about the animal, they will be able to save it from extinction.

Best proof of a sightingis a photograph, says the Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. Also valuable are plaster-of-paris casts of tracks; or photos of tracks (which should be shot alongside an object such as a coin, for size comparison); or finding scats (droppings) and scrapes (small mounds of dirt marked by deposits of droppings and urine).

It also is helpful if you note the time of day, weather conditions and surrounding terrain where you made your sighting. Then call in your information to the commission's Central Region office: (800) 342-9620.